Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Intelligent Design Bill in Montana

My friends at the National Center for Science Education report that a bill is being drafted in Montana that would “r]equire public schools to teach intelligent design along with evolution.” You might want to ask the Dover school board whether that’s a good idea. It didn’t turn out well for them when they tried that.

Comments

As the NCSE website states, the last such bill introduced in Montana died in committee in 2001. Just because some freshman legislator introduces a wacky bill is no reason to get worried or upset. If the bill makes it out of committee then it will be time to play Whack a Mole with it. Meantime, it is best to not give these religious fundies the publicity they seek.

In 2001, the political landscape did not resemble the set for “King of Hearts”.

The primary reason that the Teabaggists have become the new mahout of the GOP is that they were ignored when they were stuffing the schoolboards, planning commissions and other local, county and state offices. If the GOP ever becomes sane, again, I will stop worrying about nutbags in any statehouse.

My guess:
Clayton Fiscus doesn’t give a damn about Creationism and knows very well that he can never get it into the schools. He’s just going through the motions in order to repay the fundamentalists who backed him financially during his election campaign.

The introduction of a bill is a warning sign, but only a symptom. The bill getting out of committee is a more serious problem; passing one house, much more serious still. However, the problem seems easier to fix if dealt with earlier on.

We could cut a lot of this crap out by holding legislators personally liable for the court costs and attorney fees the state will have to pay to defend this shit that has already been defeated multiple times.

@8 That sounds a sensible idea, maybe it should have been added to that list of new constitutional ideas Ed was putting together a while ago.

“Where an act of legislation is found unconstitutional by a court and the court finds that the legislators should reasonably have known that outcome was likely all those in the legislature who voted for said legislation shall be jointly liable for all costs associated with the case”

Personally, I’m of the “ounce of prevention = pound of cure” school of dealing with wackjob legislation. Let’s get this unconstitutional bill pulled before it goes a millimetre farther, as that’s easier than getting it killed on the floor of the legislature..

@8, @10, @12 – that would just reduce the number of non-rich people in Congress. The people who would have to pay such creationism fines probably won’t care, because they can do that out of pocket change. What your proposal would do would lead to constant, 2-year long, legal harassment of middle-class House members by local partisans from the other side. And guess which partisans would be doing most of the harassing. Could it be the ones who already talk legal strategies and file suits when they lose?